Prampram chiefs woo counterparts in Ningo to join new District Assembly

The Prampram Traditional Council on Thursday enjoined the chiefs and people of the Ningo Traditional Area to re-consider their decision to boycott the newly-created Ningo-Prampram District and its activities.

Addressing a Press Conference at Prampram in reaction to one earlier held by the Ningos on Saturday, June 16, Nene Atsure Benta III, Mankralo of Prampram, said the decision by the Ningos was rather unfortunate and therefore entreated them to “join hands with us to make Ningo-Prampram District assembly grow from strength to strength.”

Nene Benta described as unfortunate a statement attributed to the Mankralo of Ningo, Nene Kanor Atiapah III, who was alleged to have said that he would expel his chiefs, assembly members and citizens if they partook in government activities.

“A chief has no legal right to expel his citizens under the 1992 constitution, since it offered freedom of association under chapter five.”

Rather, he said, a chief should liaise with government to bring development to his area.

He said it was not right for Nene Atiapah, who is also the Acting President of the Ningo Traditional Council, to have said the area had not benefited from Mr. Enoch Teye Mensah, Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, and currently the sitting Member of Parliament (MP) for the area.

Nene Benta said the Ningos had benefited from a number of projects initiated by the MP, which he cataloged include the connection of Ningo to the national electricity grid; the construction of schools and dams; the donation of computers to their schools; the awarding of scholarships to school children from Ningo, and the provision of tractors for farming in the communities.

He pointed out that the chiefs and people of Prampram had no quarrel with the Ningos for fighting for their own district, but reminded them that “districts are not created out of poverty, deprivation and under-development,” as they stated in their press conference.

Nene Benta pointed out that it was a wrong impression created by the Ningo Press Conference that the current government had developed Prampram to the detriment of Ningo.

He stated that the Prampram Police Station, for example, was the second to be built in the Gold Coast in 1814, while the Health Post and Water Company were constructed during the regime of Dr. Busia of blessed memory.

Education and Religion, he continued, were ancient institutions in Prampram and that the people of Ningo and Kpone even schooled in Prampram.

His question then was: Where lies the claim of the Ningo's that they ceded land for Prampram just to come and overtake them?

Concluding, Nene Benta queried that if the Ningo's claimed to be pace-setters, how come that all the departmental headquarters were located in Prampram.

He said, legally by the passage on March 15, 2012, of the Legislative Instrument LI 2132, Prampram is the capital of the Ningo-Prampram District Assembly.

For that reason, he said, they should find solace in the adage that in unity lies strength, and that united, the entire people in the district would stand, but divided they would fall,

The Prampram Mankralo therefore urged the chiefs and people of Ningo to rescind their decision to break away from the new district, since by so doing, it would not do anybody any good, but would only send the clock of progress in the district backward.**